Review: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I usually love historical fiction but I just couldn't get into this one because I felt like it needed tighter editing. Loved the first part but it just went downhill for me. Major trigger warnings with all the rape scenes.

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Review: The Turn of the Key

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those where the accused writes a letter explaining her innocence and you keep thinking, "What the hell?" and "Are you stupid?" as you listen to the explanation of the crime.

As a nanny, this woman makes all kinds of mistakes--manhandles the kids, leaves them alone for too long, and thinks that bribery is a way to get children to do things. She also doesn't understand technology, but she nannies in a house with a lot of it. Why the heck wouldn't she read the book of directions that the parents left for her? And why did she always "wake up disoriented" every time she slept?

Too many things that didn't make this plausible. I did want to finish to see what would happen so I had to finish the book.

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Review: Fly Already: Stories

Fly Already: Stories by Etgar Keret
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my first read by Keret, and his stories are entertaining!

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Review: Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Was this book entertaining? Yes. But I'm still not quite sure what the point of the book was. With novels, the point is to entertain usually. And that seems to be the point of this nonfiction, book, too, even though I feel like it should have been to inform or to persuade a bit more. I wanted more MEAT in this book, especially if there are going to be correlations made between horrific societal nightmare events like Sandra Black, Nasser, Sandusky, and then to an episode of Friends. I just felt like the chapters were all over the place and I wasn't satisfied with how he tried to wrap everything up into how "we misunderstand each other."

One thing I did realize--I don't have the Default to Truth thing that he talks about. I guess I'm like some police officers then? That's what online dating for the past 13 years gets me. I'm more likely to trust a random truck driver who stops to help me change my tire than someone I meet on an online dating site. I think I have a pretty good spidey sense about people, thanks to being in education for 20+ years.

I think he could have focused the whole book on the coupling idea and how there is a strong correlation between people's actions and place and how it relates to criminal justice. That part was fascinating.

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Review: The Secrets We Kept

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Now I just want to know what REALLY happened! Love historical spy stories like this when women played a bigger role than everyone thought.

I never was into all the Russian classics and I think it's hilarious that our CIA members were talking so much about Russian novels back in the day.

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Review: Red at the Bone

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How does Woodson do it? Such a fantastic writer who limits the number of pages of her works. She packs a punch with these short little books. In this one, she tells the story of Melody and her family with a lot of flashbacks, but you never get lost as a reader. I love how she worked in the horrible Tulsa Race Massacre--the more that information gets out to the public now, the better.

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Review: A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What???? This is the kind of war spy story I like to read! I had never heard of this American woman, but she is BAD ASS. I can't even attempt to summarize all the cool stuff she did while working for the British and American war/spy agencies, but she was all over the place. And she led men, which is cool, but then, after WW2, she was "put in her place" again by the lovely men of the CIA. I'm not sure how she survived the 1950s without dropping cyanide tablets in her supervisor's coffee, which she was probably asked to make.

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Review: The World That We Knew

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For some reason, I didn't love this much as I've loved other Hoffman books, and I think it's because I kept thinking that I had read it before. What other books have I read about a golem during the Holocaust? Why did it feel so familiar? Is it just because I've read too many World War II tales about the resistance? Read this one in print instead of audio--trust me.

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Review: The Unhoneymooners

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cute little unexpected romance book about a love that blooms between a twin sister and her brother-in-law's brother. Nothing new or exciting here, but it's a great fluffy beach read. Who wouldn't fall in love with a hot guy staying in a honeymoon suite with you? ;)

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Review: Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir

Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've never heard of this woman, and have never read Gourmet magazine, so I'm not exactly the audience for this memoir. That said, I did like this more than I thought I would, because, like another food memoir I read recently, it is about failure. It's easy to see how Gourmet failed though--not just for being a print magazine, but for targeting rich foodies and spending so much money on unnecessary splurges for their employees. I used to think National Geographic Traveler was unrealistic when I read it because everything was too expensive for this Midwesterner. I can't imagine what Gourmet was like. However, I enjoyed getting to know Ruth Reichl, her experiences during 9/11, and her experience as being a parent who works.

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Review: The Truffle Underground: A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus

The Truffle Underground: A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus by Ryan Jacobs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wow--I had no idea this kind of murder and mayhem happens because of some mushrooms! I don't think I've ever had real truffles. About all I know about it is that the Food show people I watch hate the truffle oil and salts--now I know because all that stuff is probably fake. The murder/mystery stuff in this book is the best--that part was fascinating. Basically I will never order anything that says truffle now, because here in America, it's probably not the real stuff unless I'm at a top end restaurant. And even then the truffles may be counterfeit! Crazy stuff. Some people have too much money.

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Review: The Poison Thread

The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dottie is rich, yet interested in how head lumps cause people to murder and be bad (science has come a long way, hasn't it?), so she volunteers at a women's prison and encounters young Ruth. Ruth is in prison for murdering her mistress and tells her tale to Ruth. I was a bit bored in the middle with so much telling and wanted the action, but, then, at the end, I felt like I had to re-read. Gothic and I just don't get along very well--too much telling and description. I wanted tighter editing in the middle and 3/4 in.

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Review: Copperhead

Copperhead by Alexi Zentner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This could have easily been published as YA. I hope the Alex Award committee will take a look at it? I did find the teen angst that the main character felt as a bit odd--he couldn't quite decide if he was going to go along with his white supremacist family or step away from them. There were times where the point-of-view felt wrong--is it 3rd person? 1st person? But I enjoyed the ride. Plenty of football and hunting in here, too, to make teens around me happy.

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